Penny Jamieson:

A small blowagainst
globalization

Every so often we see some sign of the legendary New Zealand
courage. After all, it is a part of our national
identity -- from the time of Gallipoli. We are a
small island at the forgotten bottom right hand corner of the map, but
conscious of the life, history and identity that is ours and only
ours. And another story in this tradition is beginning to
emerge.

If I remember aright, the beginning of the idea for the so-called
"People's Bank" was here in the South. It was in
Palmerston, in East Otago. When the last bank closed
there, it seemed like the final straw for that country
community. It was even too small for an ATM.
Palmerston and other places have suffered such loss from the life-draining
processes that have systematically shifted the infrastructure of small
communities to that of larger communities.

These have closed not just banks but schools, hospitals, churches
and a surprising number of pubs. Even sports teams have
diminished as watching on TV takes the place of local games.
Beginning in the likes of Palmerston, or Roxburgh or Wyndham, the
activities of our small communities move to Invercargill or Dunedin,
then to Christchurch -- which is where South Island medical
services are now being collected -- and then to Auckland and
then to Australia and then to the United States. So the big get
bigger, the rich get richer. It is happening all over the
world. It is a real loss to our rural communities and it has led
to blatant exploitation by some developers in our ciry areas that has
produced real social stress. Rosemary McLeod has analyzed this
very clearly in the Sunday Star Times over the last two
weeks. But it is disastrous for those countries where poverty is
much more sharply felt.

We call it globalization. A trend that is inevitable,
we are told, an ideology too big to fight that is presented as if
neither the presenter (a coalition of interest groups) or the
receiver (the public) has any active role to play in it,
because the global economy is going to arrive whether we like it or
not. So a complete ideological policy is advanced without any
discussion of its implications or any admission that it is an ideology.

Yet we are discussing it and we are challenging it. Perhaps
it is not quite as brave as the assault on Gallipoli. Some of
our leaders have heard of the plight of our country areas and have put
together the proposal that we know as the "People's Bank".

And, of course, it seems mad to those who identify with
global economic trends. Of course they would wish the way to be
clear for internationally owned corporations to make money out of banking
services that do not serve the needs of all our people. Of
course, they would reduce the needs of New Zealanders to their right
to say what they like. But I, for one, am pleased
that there is still a confidence around that in some respects, we do have
the will to make this country suit the needs of our people. And
by that I mean all our people, not just those of us who live in the
reasonable protection of our cities.

I want to live in a country where the countryside is alive and vibrant
and not simply full of relics of their past life. A place where
people really live, really care for each other and really feel part of
this country. There just has to be a better way for us to live
together in this country, other than with sole regard for our own
financial interests.

I simply do not believe that a government should sit back and tell people
that they just have to accept all the negative impacts of globalization
without any analysius or explanation, and certainly not without any
attempt to design an adaptive strategy. A centralizing global
economy is not inevitable -- the discussion led by a Dutch Roman
Catholic theologian on developing a global ethic is an important and
significant antidote.

So when this bank gets under way, it will make banking services
more accessible even if they can't be everywhere that the public would like
them. So I hope that those of us who do not really need its
services will make the effort to make the change, because there are many
people in this country who do not have much political clout who really want
it to work.

It is always somewhat risky to make a business into a symbol, but this
is what this still nameless bank has become. I, for
one, hope that it will provide the incentive for the development of
further adaptive strategies that assist us to become, once more, a
whole country.

Reprinted by permission.The writer is Anglican Bishop of the
Dunedin diocese.